1 Chronicles 21:1-17
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 21
David’s Census; the Plague. 1 (A)A satan[a] rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel.(B) 2 David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, “Go, number the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number.” 3 But Joab replied: “May the Lord increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?” 4 However, the king’s command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the census figures to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand. 6 Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king’s command was repugnant to Joab.(C) 7 This command was evil in the sight of God, and he struck Israel. 8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”
9 Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, in these words:(D) 10 Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I am laying out three options; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you. 11 Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Decide now— 12 will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the Lord’s own sword, a plague in the land, with the Lord’s destroying angel in every part of Israel? Now consider: What answer am I to give him who sent me?” 13 Then David said to Gad: “I am in serious trouble. But let me fall into the hand of the Lord, whose mercy is very great, rather than into hands of men.”
14 Therefore the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand Israelites died. 15 God also sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as the angel was on the point of destroying it, the Lord saw and changed his mind about the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “Enough now! Stay your hand!”(E)
Ornan’s Threshing Floor. The angel of the Lord was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 When David raised his eyes, he saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, drawn sword in hand stretched out against Jerusalem.(F) David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell face down, 17 and David prayed to God: “Was it not I who ordered the census of the people? I am the one who sinned, I did this wicked thing. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord, my God, strike me and my father’s family, but do not afflict your people with this plague!”
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- 21:1 A satan: in the parallel passage (2 Sm 24:1) David is led astray because of the Lord’s anger. The Chronicler’s modification reflects the changed theological outlook of postexilic Israel, when evil was no longer attributed directly to God. At an earlier period the Hebrew word satan (“adversary,” or, especially in a court of law, “accuser”) designated both human beings (1 Kgs 11:14) and a “son of God” who accused people before God (Jb 1:6–12; 2:1–7; Zec 3:1–2). In later Judaism (cf. Wis 2:24) and in the New Testament, satan, or the “devil” (from diablos, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word), designates an evil spirit who tempts people to do wrong.
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